www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Weather forecast looks a little unpredictable for a few days, but hopefully once things clear up we will have the usual butterfly bonanza.

Let's hope PEs have a better flight season than last year!

Despite the overcast conditions I had a very enjoyable morning with David M, with whose help, I finally completed the set. My 8th and final UK fritillary.

Yes, Steve, that weather forecast was from 'Fake News Inc', wasn't it?

We did well to find the 7 or 8 we did in all honesty. My transect went up in smoke too.

nice, are they high browns?

Yep. Sure are, Butterflyboy.

nice, not knowingly ever seen one of them.
aren't they the fasted declining fritillary in the U.K or something?

Yes. They've pretty much hit rock bottom, Butterflyboy.

They cling on in just a handful of locations and unfortunately they have very specific habitat requirements meaning that providing for them is very work intensive.

If any existing UK species is likely to go extinct in the next 10-20 years, this one is probably the favourite.

A wonderful day at P Heath, The SSB were out in mass, saw 2 who had just emerged with the ants and lots of behavioral butterflies. My husband died of old age the day before the first lock down, so photographing butterflies has been a god send. Here are a couple I took yesterday

Lovely shots, Bluebell. So sad to hear what happened last year. I'm sure the peaceful and joyful time you spend with butterflies provides some solace.

New Brood Tortoiseshells north Scotland. 2nf July.

I am more and more convinced that Torties are now routinely double brooded in Scotland. Equally (judging from readiness to enter sheds or come indoors) many of the first brood hibernate. This presumably is a back-up strategy incase second brood fails. Not sure what flowers they are enjoying. It's a shrub about 2 metes tall (not bramble despite the superficial similarly of the flowers).

Jack

The thread is July 2021, but it doesn't say where, so maybe I can sneak this one in.

It's a Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus), that is, large in the sense that it is about 10% larger than a Chequered Skipper.

NOT a UK species (which may not be much of a surprise), and quite localised in southern France. It has eluded me since 2006, so it was a very pleasant surprise to encounter this very fresh and very obliging male.
Roger

Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:37 pm The thread is July 2021, but it doesn't say where, so maybe I can sneak this one in.

It's a Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus), that is, large in the sense that it is about 10% larger than a Chequered Skipper.

NOT a UK species (which may not be much of a surprise), and quite localised in southern France. It has eluded me since 2006, so it was a very pleasant surprise to encounter this very fresh and very obliging male.

Heteropterus morpheus_48040.JPG

Roger

wow thanks for sharing that special sighting Roger ! what a handsome specimen

Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:37 pm The thread is July 2021, but it doesn't say where, so maybe I can sneak this one in.

It's a Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus), that is, large in the sense that it is about 10% larger than a Chequered Skipper.

NOT a UK species (which may not be much of a surprise), and quite localised in southern France. It has eluded me since 2006, so it was a very pleasant surprise to encounter this very fresh and very obliging male.

Great stuff, Roger. What a butterfly!

I'm assuming you are now in the French sunshine?

Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:37 pm The thread is July 2021, but it doesn't say where, so maybe I can sneak this one in.

It's a Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus), that is, large in the sense that it is about 10% larger than a Chequered Skipper.

NOT a UK species (which may not be much of a surprise), and quite localised in southern France. It has eluded me since 2006, so it was a very pleasant surprise to encounter this very fresh and very obliging male.

Heteropterus morpheus_48040.JPG

Roger

That really is a stunning butterfly Roger, and a cracking image too.

On the 1st I visited fairmile Common to catch up with Silver-studded Blues, plenty around including a mating pair. Then in the afternoon I went to Epsom Common to see if there were any Black Hairstreak hanging on, finding two worn females on egg laying duties. Marbled White are also beginning to emerge here.

Yesterday (2nd) I spent the morning and most the afternoon at Bookham. Very overcast until late morning but I didn't get a sniff of the big purple one. I suspect the sighting from there was from the people that pretty much camp out under the master tree (I can't do that, I get itchy feet). A little purple one did come down and allow a few photos though I spent the final few hours at Box hill where DGF were everywhere, a conservative head count would reach around 40 but only one was a female so there would be significantly more secreted around in the grass.

Daneway Banks.

Spent a couple of days (June 30th - July 1st) in the Cotswolds with my partner Kasia Bukowska. We stayed at The Crown in Frampton Mansell and visited Daneway Banks over the two days. Arriving on site at 5.00am on the first morning we were greeted by a heavy dew, so we headed straight for an area where we usually find Marbled Whites roosting in good numbers. Sure enough we found a dozen males perched up and covered in dew. Below are a couple of images of one individual, the second image shows the extent of the dew.

As well as the dew, most of the Marbled Whites were carrying red mites (Trombidium breei). Most had only two or three of the blood sucking parasites but one individual (shown below) was infested with them. After taking photos kasia gently removed an amazing 22 mites from him.


Unfortunately we couldn't find any roosting dew covered Large Blues, though we did find a couple of females to photograph as the sun appeared for an hour or so around 7.00am. We stayed on site until 1.00pm by which time we had seen around 10 Large Blues before heading over to Rodborough Common. Plenty of Marbled Whites on the Common and a beautiful fresh female Dark Green Fritillary, but sadly we couldn't find any Large Blues. Feeling tired from our 3.00am start we retired to The Crown at around 4.00pm before an evening meal in Stroud. Another early start on Thursday yielded more roosting Marbled Whites and another female Large Blue. We searched the site for a good couple of hours in the hope of finding a roosting male, but to no avail.

We went back to The Crown for breakfast before returning to Daneway at around 11.00am, where again we found at least 10 Large Blues on the wing. By now there were a lot of people searching the banks and we were hopeful of finding a copulating pair, sadly this wasn't to be. However a call of " Large Blue with wings wide open " from a guy a few yards from us gave us the opportunity to photograph a fresh female basking in hazy sunshine. The guy turned out to be Roger Littleover who we both knew fro social media, the female sat still whilst a queue formed to take her photo. After thanking Roger we decided to head for home.

All the images below are of females.

Just returned from Wixall Moss and a visit to Prees Heath Common,

The  Silver-studded Blue were so numerous at Prees Heath Commonthat that care had to be taken not to step on them, this couple drew my attention, the female appeared to be almost black with a blue suffusion, is this unusual ? 
More pictures to follow as time permits.
https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

It's unusual for them to have SO much of a blue suffusion, Jim (normally there's just a smattering).

There was a similar individual posted on the UKB Facebook page yesterday by Roger Littleover. That one had even more blue than your specimen and quite pronounced orange hindwing lunules.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=101 ... 0784368424

Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:37 pm The thread is July 2021, but it doesn't say where, so maybe I can sneak this one in.

It's a Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus), that is, large in the sense that it is about 10% larger than a Chequered Skipper.

NOT a UK species (which may not be much of a surprise), and quite localised in southern France. It has eluded me since 2006, so it was a very pleasant surprise to encounter this very fresh and very obliging male.

Heteropterus morpheus_48040.JPG

Roger

Good to see that you are successfully back on French territory - and what a cracking shot of my favourite European skipper! Enjoy, I am only slightly jealous

A couple of interesting Meadow Browns from Orlestone forest Kent over the last couple of days ,the open winged shot ,a "Blind "
spotted individual AB;Caeca ,the second has the largest hind-underwing spots ,that i,v seen. Allan.W.